The species, easiest first
- 1
Amano Shrimp
Caridina multidentata- Easy
- Shrimp
- Max 2"
- Algae eater
Amanos are the best algae-eating shrimp in the hobby, full stop — a squad of them will mow down hair and thread algae that nothing else touches, and Takashi Amano popularized them for exactly that reason.
$24.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 2
Assassin Snail
Anentome helena- Easy
- Snail
- Max 1"
- Pest control
Assassin snails are the biological fix for a pest snail outbreak: they actively hunt and eat ramshorns, bladder snails, and trumpet snails, and a small group will collapse an infestation within a couple of months.
$10.99 In stockCare profile → - 3
Black Devil Snail
Faunus ater- Easy
- Snail
- Max 3.5"
- Scavenger
The Black Devil is a glossy jet-black spike up to three and a half inches long that bulldozes through substrate eating detritus — dramatic to look at, completely peaceful, and incapable of breeding in freshwater, so you get exactly the number you bought.
$16.99 In stockCare profile → - 4
Blueberry Snail
Viviparus sp.- Easy
- Snail
- Max 1.2"
- Scavenger
Blueberry snails are small blue-grey viviparids that do quiet, useful work: grazing film algae, eating detritus, and — unusually for a snail — filter-feeding particles straight from the water column.
$26.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 5
Cherry Shrimp
Neocaridina davidi- Easy
- Shrimp
- Max 1.5"
- Algae eater
Cherry shrimp are the gateway invertebrate: hardy in ordinary tap-water parameters, constantly grazing biofilm and algae, and able to turn ten shrimp into a few hundred within a year in a stable, predator-free tank.
$24.99 In stockCare profile → - 6
Dwarf Mexican Crayfish
Cambarellus patzcuarensis- Easy
- Crayfish
- Max 2"
- Scavenger
The CPO is the crayfish that breaks the crayfish rules: at under two inches it does not uproot plants, dig craters, or murder tankmates, which makes it the only crayfish that genuinely belongs in a planted community tank.
$19.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 7
Ghost Shrimp
Palaemonetes paludosus- Easy
- Shrimp
- Max 2"
- Scavenger
Ghost shrimp are cheap, transparent scavengers sold mostly as feeders, which is the honest context for their care: they arrive in rough shape from crowded feeder tanks, and losing a few in the first week is normal even when you do everything right.
- 8
Horned Nerite Snail
Clithon corona- Easy
- Snail
- Max 0.6"
- Algae eater
Horned nerites do everything a zebra nerite does in half the size, which makes them the algae eater of choice for nano tanks — small enough to graze between carpet plants and inside tight hardscape without bulldozing anything.
$12.99 In stockCare profile → - 9
Japanese Trapdoor Snail
Cipangopaludina japonica- Easy
- Snail
- Max 2"
- Algae eater
Japanese trapdoor snails are the cold-water workhorse: hardy down to the 50s, happy in unheated tanks and outdoor ponds, and among the longest-lived aquarium snails at five-plus years with good shell care.
$20.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 10
Malaysian Trumpet Snail
Melanoides tuberculata- Easy
- Snail
- Max 1"
- Scavenger
Malaysian trumpet snails are the earthworms of the aquarium: they live buried in the substrate by day, turning and aerating it, and emerge at night to eat detritus and leftover food.
- 11
Mystery Snail
Pomacea bridgesii- Easy
- Snail
- Max 2"
- Scavenger
Mystery Snails are the easiest large showpiece snail to keep, but plan for a 10-gallon minimum: a golf-ball-sized snail produces a surprising amount of waste, and in a 5-gallon that bioload adds up fast.
$11.99 In stockCare profile → - 12
Pom Pom Crab
Ptychognathus barbatus- Easy
- Crab
- Max 1"
- Scavenger
The pom pom crab is the rare crab you can actually keep in a normal aquarium: it is fully aquatic, stays around an inch, and spends its day sweeping food into its mouth with the fuzzy 'pom poms' on its claws instead of menacing tankmates.
$16.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 13
Ramshorn Snail
Planorbella duryi- Easy
- Snail
- Max 1"
- Algae eater
Ramshorns are the classic love-them-or-hate-them snail: tireless consumers of soft algae, dead leaves, and uneaten food, with striking red and pink forms that carry their blood's hemoglobin color through a translucent shell.
$13.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 14
White Wizard Snail
Filopaludina martensi- Easy
- Snail
- Max 2.5"
- Scavenger
The White Wizard is a chunky Southeast Asian trapdoor snail with a porcelain-white body that stands out against dark substrate, and unlike its cold-water trapdoor cousins it is fully comfortable in tropical temperatures.
$17.99 In stockCare profile → - 15
Zebra Nerite Snail
Neritina natalensis- Easy
- Snail
- Max 1"
- Algae eater
If you want one animal to erase green spot and diatom algae from glass and hardscape, a nerite is it — no other freshwater snail grazes as hard.
$11.99 In stockCare profile → - 16
Bamboo Shrimp
Atyopsis moluccensis- Medium
- Shrimp
- Max 3"
- Filter feeder
Bamboo shrimp eat with four feather-like fans, parking in the filter current and combing food particles out of the water — which means they need two things most tanks lack: strong flow and water with something in it.
$11.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 17
Chopstick Snail
Stenomelania torulosa- Medium
- Snail
- Max 3"
- Scavenger
Chopstick snails are slender three-inch spikes that live mostly buried, keeping sand beds turned and clean the way Malaysian trumpet snails do — but without the population explosion, because their larvae need brackish water and never survive in a freshwater tank.
$16.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 18
Fiddler Crab
Uca sp.- Medium
- Crab
- Max 2"
- Showpiece
Let's be honest about what a fiddler crab is not: it is not a freshwater community-tank animal, no matter how often it is sold as one.
$14.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 19
Hercules Snail
Brotia herculea- Medium
- Snail
- Max 4"
- Scavenger
The Hercules snail is one of the largest freshwater snails in the hobby — a four-inch armored tower from fast Burmese rivers — and that origin is the care sheet: it wants cooler water, strong flow, and high oxygen, not a warm still betta bowl.
$18.99 In stockCare profile → - 20
Rabbit Snail
Tylomelania sp.- Medium
- Snail
- Max 4"
- Scavenger
Rabbit snails are slow-cruising, long-faced characters from Indonesia's Sulawesi lakes, and they need that lake chemistry to thrive: warm water in the high 70s to mid 80s and alkaline pH near 8.
$31.99 In stockCare profile → - 21
Vampire Crab
Geosesarma dennerle- Medium
- Crab
- Max 1"
- Showpiece
Vampire crabs are stunning purple-and-yellow-eyed jewels, but they are not aquarium animals — they are paludarium animals that spend most of their time on land and will drown-stress or escape from a standard fish tank.
$14.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 22
Asian Gold Clam
Corbicula fluminea- Advanced
- Clam
- Max 2"
- Filter feeder
Here is the truth most listings skip: freshwater clams slowly starve in the clean, well-filtered tanks most people keep, because they live entirely on suspended micro-particles that good filtration removes.
$13.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 23
Crystal Red Shrimp
Caridina cantonensis- Advanced
- Shrimp
- Max 1.2"
- Showpiece
Crystal reds are the show-bench shrimp: candy-striped, selectively bred, and unforgiving of the hard alkaline tap water that cherry shrimp shrug off.
$29.99 Out of stockCare profile → - 24
Horned Pagoda Snail
Brotia pagodula- Advanced
- Snail
- Max 2"
- Algae eater
The horned pagoda is arguably the most spectacular freshwater snail — a spiked stone pagoda from the Salween River — and one of the least forgiving: it needs cool, fast, highly oxygenated water and a constant supply of biofilm-covered rock to graze, and it quietly starves in clean, warm, still tanks.
$24.99 Out of stockCare profile →
Planting the same tank?
Most of these species do their best work in a planted tank. Browse the plant database, or let the finder rank every plant against your exact setup.
Frequently asked questions
Something is eating my plants — is it the snails or shrimp?
Check whether the damaged leaves were healthy. Inverts on this list eat tissue only after it starts dying, so holes in firm green leaves point elsewhere: nutrient deficiency, a plant-eating fish, or normal melt on a newly planted stem. Holes in yellowing leaves are the cleanup crew doing its job.
Are plant fertilizers and root tabs safe with snails and shrimp?
Standard aquarium plant fertilizers dose copper at trace levels far below what harms invertebrates — they are designed for shrimp tanks. The real chemical risks are snail-killing medications and some fish treatments containing copper sulfate; read labels before treating a tank that houses inverts.
Will big snails crush or uproot plants even if they don't eat them?
The heavyweights can bulldoze: a three-inch black devil snail plowing through sand will flatten a fragile carpet, and any large snail can knock over an unrooted stem. Let plants root before adding big snails, attach epiphytes to hardscape, and the problem disappears.